4/25/11

The Trump? We haven´t had a president with long hair since Reagan! That would cause a lot of problems with China, but it´s probably about time. They´ve been purposly damaging our economy long enough with their illegal currency weaking games. Good tickets to look for would be Trump/Gingrich or even better, Trunt/Huntsman, since Trump would be a little weak on the foreign policy end, and Huntsman is the former US Ambassador to China.

 

I´ll probably end up needing to register remotely or something. Too bad the darn mail is so slow. You may have to look at that next year to see how we´ll have to do it, or if I´ll be back before the deadline to register to vote in the General Election.

So, yes, yesterday was the first day in the new branch. We met in a members apartment. She´s essentially donated the second floor to the church, so it was about 40 of us crammed in the room, and the Stake and Branch presidencies on the balcony. We didn´t have time to print out hymns, so we passed by the chapel here in Granollers and swiped about ten hymnbooks from them. The branch president was like ¨Did you ask for these?¨ with a smile. The stake president just laughed and said basically ¨I didn´t see anything.¨

 

Thankfully, our prayers worked, and it didn´t rain during the services(clouds looked nasty up until about 20 minutes before). The Stake President said that they´re in negotiations for a nice building they´ve found, but that they´re going to take a while, and it´ll have to be approved by the Europe Area Presidency. About five to six months at the expected rate, so I probably won´t be here when that happens. Afterwards the stake president drove us home. He told us we should ask the Office for a car since we´ll be travelling a ridiculous amount(he was pretty serious too). We told him we´ll think about it. Since we´ll be in the office for interviews tomorrow, we´ll bring in some clippings for some nice used Mercedes...hehehe.

 

In all reality, though, we´re going to be hitting them up for unlimited travel tickets. Our current one is only good for 70 trips, which isn´t very much between the two of us. With as often as we have to buy a new one, the office would actually save by buying a month long unlimited pass. Plus, we´re always out of money while we wait to get reimbursed...

 

Silly binner, she´s got to at least drink through out the day. She´ll drop like a stone at that rate. Brandon just needs better coaching. Sounds like he´s got some real winners.

 

She probably needs like an 04 Chevy Aveo...something light that bounces if it runs into something. Like a rollerskate. Maybe a Geo Metro.

 

So, it was Spanish ¨Lets all be bums¨ week, aka ¨Semana Santa¨. The whole country has been on holiday since Wednesday. Nothing will be back to normal until tomorrow. Like most catholic holidays, they´re not celebrated because the people actually believe, rather, because it´s an excuse to not work. So there´s been no mail delivery, no garbage pickup, no street cleaning, most stores have been closed, the train company has run the usual bad schedule, and I´m surprised the whole country didn´t just fall apart. All the dumpsters are overflowing, people are probably needing to send mail, lots of fun stuff.

 

We didn´t do anything too crazy this week, though. Lots of work. We´re looking at some baptisms soon. I think we´re about to get a whole family in Vic(4)-we´re so close, but I think they´ll pull through. The members are pulling, we´re pulling, and with a little help, it´ll be for this Saturday. Otherwise, it´ll be in two weeks, because the next week is Stake Conference. They like the church, they love us, they just need to pray a little more to get that testimony and they´ll come.

 

Tomorrow we´ll be in Barcelona for interviews, afterwhich we´ll all go make the usual fast food run. That´s kind of tradition to go eat somewhere after interviews. Then I´ve got to pick up a third journal-there´s only about 20 pages left in the second one.

 

Then, this week, Elder Keller will be in Gerona for Tuesday-Thursday, and little brother, Crofts younger and lesser son, Elder Dalton, from Oro Valley, will be here with me. So I´m sure we´ll be busy.

 

Well, I guess it was a quiet week again. Hopefully more next week. Sometimes I worry that I´ll keep saying next week, then I´ll be seeing you all in person...

 

Oh, yes, I´ll be calling home on the 8th. When is your church, so I can finagle around so that you can at least attend sacrament meeting?

 

 

Bradley.

4/18/11

OH TEH NOES OH MY WHAT DID YOU DO THE COMPUTER WILL DIE AND I DON´T KNOW WHAT TO DO...hahaha

 

It´s fine. My guess is that it was one of those annoying popups that locks up the browser, then looks like a virus scanner/Windows Explorer window, then tells you you´ve got ten billion viruses. Don´t worry. I´m sure all the protections I built in will keep things fine. I´ve already got plans for Larry to pass by the house and do a tune up on all the equipment when he gets home in a few months. I´ve got too many little tweaks to let people touch it-they´d say I was crazy. (and they say well...)

No, the week didn´t go as planned. The AP´s got involved with a grand ´plan´,(I think the Communists had better ´plans´.) so I ended up in a trio for most of the week. We still went into Barcelona for the day, but I ended up having to leave my bag there and not get it until Tuesday afternoon. And I´d packed so well I didn´t have anything left in the house...hehe.

 

Yes, the branch is still on schedule. This Sunday we´ll be having church there. Though now we´re hearing it´ll be almost five months before we´ve got the actual chapel ready-the city is throwing up all kinds of problems. If it was a...well, house of ill repute, we´d probably have an easier time getting the permits.

 

Eh, one year is aways away. Things are moving along nice and fine.

 

I think a good car for Marae would be an ´88 Buick Skylark. Two tone.

 

Binner used to be really good at being the teachers favorite. What happened there?

 

Seriously, another puppy will distort the zen balance of the house and cause a chemical imbalance which will resort in the departure of at least one cat. Then again, Dad would probably say that´s a good thing.

 

Transfers are still a while away. And if we were to suddenly get shipped out to Vic it´d be okay-we´d still be in Granollers on a weekly basis minimum.

 

So, it was a different week. Monday we did go into Barcelona to see the giant monument to the Catholic Church...not much of a spirit in that place. Probably won´t survive the Second Coming. Then we came back, worked in the area on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as a trio (me as tag along). We did have some nice doctrinal discussions, though. I do enjoy those. I just wish I could find someone who likes the Bible as much as I do...

 

Nothing was too crazy. Thursday afternoon Elder Keller came back, then we went out into the countryside with this guy who´d randomly contacted us in the street. He took us out to see...another old catholic church.  But at least the walk there was nice.

 

It is pretty easy to see why most Catholics aren´t very active. The churches are nice and dinky. Usually pretty poor lighting as well. Like being in a crypt.

 

Friday, we did a fair bit of traveling. Taught a super confused Evangelical guy...he´s so messed up he´s afraid to touch the pages of the Book of Mormon, and then said that the picture of Christ that was up in the house was against the commandment of ´no images´. Then he muttered some memorized prayer and did a little ritual. I remarked afterward how glad I am that the church isn´t strapped by inane traditions like that. He just looked so trapped, uncomfortable, and unhappy.

 

Saturday was just spent preparing for Sunday. Sunday was the last time we´d be meeting in the church here, so things were mostly spent with the members saying good bye.

 

Now comes the big week. We´ll be pushing the whole week to get as many people to come on Sunday as possible. The stake president will be there, so we need to at least make the branch look as promising as possible.

 

I did finally eat all the candy. I guess I didn´t wait. Sorry.

 

Hopefully things go nice and calm this week for you all. I´m sure they will here too.

 

Love,

Bradley.

4/11/11

No, no more puppies! They´re messy, expensive, they only demand attention, and my cat will probably go on strike and destroy something.

 

They probably won´t send him to Mexico. Though I don´t know if they´re still having the colossal visa problems, but it´s probably not going to happen. I really doubt New Mexico, though. I´ll guess...Peru, or Argentina. There´s my two.

 

Sounds like the Binner had a rough race, but at least she´s all right.

 

China´s still just a rumor. It´s not like it´s a secret, but there´s not much weight behind it either. Mission rumors spread pretty easy.

 

If you send another card, make sure it´s not really big. I don´t think the camera will accept anything bigger than 2GB (especially without a firmware update). Dang thing´s still running 1.011-I don´t know why I didn´t think of updating it.

 

The branch is chugging along. It´s still not open yet, but we´ve finally got a firm date of the 24th from the stake.

 

I got a letter from Father Crofts today. Apparantly, his mother was reading my letters on the blog...I didn´t know they were being posted publically. Dearie me...I certaintly hope I haven´t offended anyone. . Now I have to censor myself.

 

So, it´s been a hot week. Too hot. And it´s not even summer yet...I think it´s going to be a warm one this year. And I´ll probably not be getting out of Granollers until the end of July transfer...and since every new area just moves me up north, I´ll probably head up to the Bilbao area...as long as it´s not St Sebastian...can´t take Benny Boy. *twitches*

 

So, today´s going to be a special day. We´re finally making the difficult journey on the infamous R2 Nord into Barcelona. The treacherous 35 minute trip on Renfe´s finest rat motels will hopefully get us in safely. Then we´ll be going to the giant ant hill, also known as the Sagrada Familia, as well as some other stuff. I´ll see if I can take some pictures.

 

This week is the grand and poweful ¨Leadership Training Seminar¨, which means my companion has to attend. Tonight we´ll be sleeping in Barcelona...with about four others, including the all-powerful Zone Leader, the Man from St. George. It´s been since I left for the field that we´ve seen eachother, so that should be good. Then I´ll be here in Granollers until Thursday afternoon with another missionary. Perhaps we´ll just stay in all day and play Bananagrams.

 

Elder Keller and I have been going through some McKinnon withdrawals. It´s been like a presence has been missing from the house all week. We´ve tried to console ourselves listening to his albums, but it hasn´t helped much. I think we´re recovering, though.

 

Getting close to filling volume two of the mission journals. I´ll have to order another one soon-there´s only 39 pages left to write in.

 

So I got a haircut last week. I felt a little gay, though. We were in a hurry, so we had to go to a slightly upscale shop. Then I let Plaskett go first, who opted for the shampoo treatment...then when I went up, they just assumed that I wanted a shampoo...ridiculous. 16 euros later...I don´t plan to go back. At least the haircut isn´t utterly horrible...

 

Nothing too crazy has been happening this week, though. It was pretty calm apart from the heat. We´re going to be looking for an apartment in Vic soon, so we´ll be looking for a palace with air conditioning..maybe even central air! (haha...right, that doesn´t exist here.) I remember how in the US we used to have to refrigerate things, too...milk...eggs...meat...nope, not here! With the magic Spain Milk, you can leave it open on the counter for a day or two and not see a difference. And if it expires on the shelf, they just have to run it back through the factory and it´s good for a few months more. It´s like magic!

 

Okay, I´ll calm down on the sarcasm. But I have a fanbase on the internets now, so I have to perform, right?

 

Hopefully you all have a good week.

 

Bradley.

4/4/11

Things have been shifting around here too. One day, it´ll be crazy hot, then things will cool off again.

 

The shoes are moving along okay. Getting shoes here will be fun, though. Those seem to be the most common things seized by los tontos de Madrid. Granted, those seem to be those ´hip´ Ecco shoes that run like 160 bucks (and they´re not waterproof) I´ve never seen a missionary with a pair that´s lasted their whole mission. Every single one falls apart in the heels.

 

My slip ons are fine (still more comfortable), the other ones are chugging along. There´s starting to be a little wear in the sole on one side, but it´s nothing out of the ordinary. Those things probably have quite a few miles on them.

 

Socks are fine. They´re holding up like they should. No elastic problems yet.

 

We didn´t see Elder Scott talk. Thanks to the time zone issue, we only see the Saturday sessions and Sunday morning. But President Monson made sure we all heard it in Priesthood session. ¨I just see groups of mid 20´s men running around! In groups! I don´t know what they´re doing!¨

 

Now, a secret. The Church has produced a new version of the ¨Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration¨ movie that they released in 2005. And they´ve released it for online download. http://radio.lds.org/joseph?lang=eng

 

Now here´s the fun part. You´ll just need to download it to a flash drive (use the 8GB one, plz), flip down the front door on the Blu-ray player, and stick the flash drive in. Then it should (if there´s no disc in) switch to flash drive mode and you´ll be able to watch it that way. Get the 1080p version (the download link is right below the video box, it´s a 2.2GB file, so transfer speeds will be a bit) so it looks nice and pretty on that big screen. We watched it in between sessions of conference and it´s a lot different from the old one (about 40% is new material). Yes, I know there´s a lot that that player does that I didn´t tell about. Did you know you can get on YouTube with it as well?

 

Fall on the house? I´d be more worried about it falling on my truck!  The house is insured!

So, it was kind of a slow week. We were running around preparing everyone for conference. Tuesday, an inactive had called us asking for help moving. So we all went out to Vic, get there...and nothing´s packed. She then handed around bags and had us pack, then take everything down for her. We set up a nice system, though. My comp and Elder Plaskett on the bottom, loading things in the van, Elder McKinnon and a member on the third floor, bringing things to the elevator, and me...in the elevator, taking things up and down. I probably made about 70 trips in the darn thing. Third floor, oh hi, thanks, close doors, open doors, push crap out, close doors, up to the third, oh hi...yeah. We were there all day. But it´s all right.

 

Spent the rest of the week running around. Then Saturday came. Did some work in the morning, then caught a ride in with a member. (yay...no train). We´re in the stake center waiting around while the member watched the young women meeting. Then, as we´re getting close to the conference, we happened to ask the stake president where we´d be watching it in English.

 

He says ¨Well, they just installed the satellite transceiver this morning, and it´s only configured for Spanish, and the only guy who kinda knows what to do is in Hospitalet.¨

 

So it´s 10 minutes before conference, and we´ve got no English. No time to take the Metro to Hospitalet either. The office elders get there, and we all ran up to the third floor (okay, we took the elevator), managed to get into the family history center (it´s a tiny room), and get the computer hooked up fast enough to start conference just in time. Then we packed twenty missionaries in a room the size of your bedroom...and there´s a lot of microfilm machines in there. It was toasty. But at least we got to watch it in English. After that was done, we went with some members to Plaza Espanya(yes, that´s deliberate spelling. The ¨ñ¨ doesn´t exist in Catalunya) to watch the fountain and light show. I took some pictures, but it was kinda dark. I´ll try to send them along some time. (I swear, none of the card readers in this stupid place work). Then we headed home.

 

Sunday, got up, caught the train, had to run over to Hospitalet to watch Priesthood session (since that´s not sent over the internet until later), then caught the Metro back to the stake center in Barcelona to watch the rest of conference. So we were everywhere. But at least we caught all the sessions in English this time.

 

President Monson thought he´d be funny in the last talk on the Sunday Morning session, though. Everyone thought he was dropping a surprise temple annoucement like President Hinckley used to do, except for one in Jerusalem (yeah, the age of the city was wrong).

 

So, transfer calls came in on Saturday night. Yes, I´m still here for another transfer. We´ll be working on building up the new branch, which, if things stay on schedule, will be having its first meeting there this Sunday. We´ll see how things turn out. ´

 

Today, we´re going to be getting a few things taken care of. I need a haircut, so I´ll be looking for that, and we´ll be taking it easy for the most part. Busy week planned. Hopefully.

 

Hope you all have a good week.

 

Bradley.

3/28/11

I didn´t get the email, no. Just one from Dad and Binner. I figured it was a server screwup. That´s alright.

 

However, the box did arrive. I´ve now had to establish limits as to when I can do crosswords. Gracias.

 

The story on TV was probably over the completion of the Madrid/Murcia/Valencia AVE line they opened up in late December. Of course, President´s just banned us from all AVE travel () except in the rare approved case. But it´s okay.

 

Yeah, they´ve got all these conferences, though I haven´t attended a single one yet. I barely missed ward conference in Tarragona, then Close and I missed Stake Conference thanks to the time change, then I barely missed ward conference here, and I have no idea when stake conference is next.

 

Clothes are fine, as far as I know. Though I´ll probably just be tossing a lot of things when the time finally comes to go home. I guess there is a potential problem with the shoes. The left shoe on the lacing pair is starting to come away from the sole on the flex point where the shoe bends from walking. It´s not off completely, but there´s some stressed leather there for sure. I´m thinking about getting some super glue and just gluing it back down before it comes off entirely.

 

I think you´ll be getting that missing box back one day. Somehow I´ll get my revenge on the office for botching that one. And Spain, them too.

 

Yes, the booboo brought in mud every single day. I usually scraped off her paws and only let her out when she whined to go to the bathroom.

 

We finally went to the new building. I wasn´t that impressed, actually. For Spain it´s nice, and it looks nice from the outside, but it still looks kinda small. The stand was surprisingly small. I think the sacrament hall and the overflow would fit in our cultural hall. We´ll be going back for conference, though. They´re not equipped to show it period here in Granollers, and if they were, it woudn´t be in English. We´ll see the saturday sessions, the first sunday session, and the priesthood session.

 

Nope, I was actually sitting at the main table playing some games. We don´t go to bed until 11:30, remember?

 

I guess maybe Johnny won´t sneak around so much. Dope.

 

No baptisms set for this week. We´ve got some uncooperative investigators at the moment. "I´m going to do all I can to come to church, I promise." No show. "Oh, you know, things came up."

 

I´ve been using the leather cleaner. It´s helping, but there´s ten months of grime and sweat stains. With time it´ll look better, I´m sure. The triple´s case is still in nice shape, but I usually don´t carry it around in my hand.

 

This week should be calm as usual. We don´t have too much planned for today, or for the week, really. Hopefully you all have a nice week too.

 

Bradley.

3/21/11

Well, this week wasn´t too bad. We were fairly busy. Monday we really didn´t do anything, but it did rain pretty good. Shoes were soaked. Even if they´re waterproof, sometimes we were in puddles higher than the sides! Then we had a lesson with a new investigator, Alberto, and set a baptismal date with him. (which we´ve since had to change) Tuesday, not a whole lot happened. It was raining again. We did have a good lesson with Julietta, an investigator, and set a baptismal date with her (which we´ve since had to change as well.) Wednesday we had the usual lessons. English class went well. We were running all over the area on trains for the day. Thursday we ate with some members, and had some violent games of Uno. We were playing points, and I got hammered on the first game, ended up with 200 odd points. After that I was wiping everyone out, but by then it didn´t matter. Friday we all went out to Vic to eat with some members, It didn´t rain, for the first time this week. Saturday we went out and traveled a lot again. Then on Sunday, had church, went out and set another baptismal date with Isaac. After that, we had a family home evening with all the members of the soon-to-be branch. That went pretty well.

 

This week shoudn´t be too bad. We´ve got zone conference tomorrow, so that means a trip to Barcelona. Today we´re headed there as well to stop by the office and then to head off to see some sights. I think we´re looking at going to the Sagrada Familia, but we´ll see. Other than that, not much else happening.

 

Hope you all have a good week.

 

Bradley.